Stretch your brain
"I thought you said the place looked abandoned," said George. "It did." "You didn't notice the hundred-yard floating alien orb?!" "Keep your voice down!" Hannah whispered. "I'm more worried about the sentry." They peeked through the wind-blasted branches of some kind of desert shrub from the lip of the valley. Ahead was a cracked and… Continue reading Turncoat
Shivam awoke to strange constellations. Red stars that didn’t glimmer, looking not so far above the tops of the Western white pines. Then he felt a tremble in the earth like an orchestral brass section playing dissonant chords in infrasound somewhere just out of sight within the dark forest. There was a Behemoth ship overhead.… Continue reading Helping Hand
The ice giant Rosen is only a pale crescent in the violet sky of its largest moon. Ivodus looks up and thinks it looks like the closed eye of a sleeping god. Or a dead one. This place sets off strange and indistinct memories, more feelings than specific recollections, and he doesn't like it. It… Continue reading Knowing the Enemy
"Are you saying we're living in a simulation?" "Am I saying...what? No. Jesus, Barta; would you sit down and focus? This is why..." Vetterman trailed off and waved her hand. She was smug, sitting behind her walnut desk, wearing her uniform as naturally as her own skin. Barta used to have a uniform too. All… Continue reading Battle of the Brains
There was a peculiar scent in the air, a mix of spilled petrol and roasted pork with sweetsop. Bata had visited many of these metrolettes, and they all had their own smell. He removed the clear regulator mask from beneath his robes, the rubber hose snaking back beneath the folds, situated the mask over his… Continue reading An Audience With the Presider
Something invisible slammed into Meralda's shoulder. Splinters of bone flew away and the force knocked her to the ground, but by the time she bounced back up she was healed. It was just surface damage. A gray sheen of nanocytes swarmed the area and laid down a thick patch of synthetic exoskeleton over the impact… Continue reading The Civility
Cruelly, when Baz lost all of his external senses, he retained his ability to be afraid. What they say is true: when one sense fades, the others sharpen in compensation. This left Baz in a state of terror inaccessible to the average person. Though, Baz was an average soldier, which is something else entirely. His… Continue reading Canaries
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